


One Blood

by TardisIsTheOnlyWayToTravel



Series: What Has Been Wrought [1]
Category: Jurassic World Trilogy (Movies)
Genre: Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Canonical Character Death, Dinosaur/Human Hybrids, Dinosaurs, Gen, Genetic Engineering, Jurassic World 2: Fallen Kingdom spoilers, Spoilers!, What if?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-01
Updated: 2018-07-01
Packaged: 2019-05-31 16:28:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15123389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TardisIsTheOnlyWayToTravel/pseuds/TardisIsTheOnlyWayToTravel
Summary: (SPOILERs for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom!)'We be of one blood, ye and I.'Or: what if Maisie Lockwood's background had been different?





	One Blood

**Author's Note:**

> I realise that I'm not the first to have this idea; I clearly wasn't the only one who picked up on the foreshadowing which wasn't followed-through. So here's a what-might-have-been.
> 
> It's a bit darker than my usual stuff, so you've been warned!

** One Blood **

As Mr Mills and the stranger talked, Maisie slipped back into the shadows, taking first one step, then another. Her heart was hammering, but Maisie felt almost calm, watching and listening to the two men with hyper-focus. 

A moment later, something touched Maisie’s hair, and there was a gust of warm air from behind her, as though some living thing had just breathed on the back of her neck. She spun, still soundless, and opened her mouth to scream as she saw what was in the cage behind her, and reaching out towards her with long, sharp claws.

Then Maisie paused, because something about the way it smelled felt… not _familiar_ , because Maisie had never smelled anything like it before, but… it was a scent that some part of Maisie recognised, deep in her bones. And the creature was looking back at her with bright, dark eyes that held too much intelligence for Maisie to dismiss it as just an animal.

So Maisie paused, and tilted her head curiously. The dinosaur – whatever kind of dinosaur it was – stilled, and watched her in return.

Maisie glanced back in the direction the two men had gone while she’d been busy panicking, but the sound of their voices and footsteps had receded into nothing. So Maisie looked back at the dinosaur, taking in his size and sharp spines, his half-crouched posture, and the way he blended in perfectly with his dark surroundings.

Maisie took a deep breath.

“Hello.”

The dinosaur let out a short, cough-like bark. Somehow, Maisie’s brain had no trouble translating the sound.

“My name’s Maisie,” she offered, her fear receding as a sense of fascination built within her. “Do you understand me?”

The dinosaur stayed still, and watched her.

With a frown, Maisie peered more closely at the cage he was in. It was difficult to see in the darkness, but…

“They’ve put you in a really small cage,” said Maisie, her brow furrowing. “Do they ever let you out of there?”

The dinosaur just looked at her – but not, Maisie thought, because he didn’t understand her words.

“Oh! Nod your head like this for _yes_ , and shake it like this for _no_ ,” said Maisie, demonstrating each gesture. 

She asked the question again.

“Do they ever let you out of there?”

After a moment, the dinosaur moved. He slowly shook its head.

“But that’s not enough room. You can barely move around in there,” said Maisie.

The dinosaur gave a short, sharp nod.

“That’s terrible,” said Maisie. “I have to tell my Grandpa about what they’re doing down here. He’d never allow it. I don’t know if he’ll believe me, but I have to try.”

Maisie turned to walk away, then stopped, and turned back to the dinosaur.

“I’ll be back,” she promised, because she felt a strange sense of kinship with this… creature? No, _being_ seemed more apt.

Maisie ran back towards the elevator on silent feet, heading for her Grandpa’s room. When she got there, her Grandpa was lying quiet and still.

“Grandpa?” said Maisie, but he didn’t move. “Grandpa, wake up.” She shook his arm.

It was then that the health-monitor alarm went off, but her Grandpa never stirred, and Maisie began to understand.

“No,” she said. “Grandpa!”

A moment later Mr Mills and Iris rushed in. Iris put a hand over her mouth, and then tried to pull Maisie away from her Grandpa.

“Maisie…”

“ _No!_ ” Maisie shouted. “He _can’t_ be gone!”

“It’s a tragedy, Maisie, but your Grandpa was an old man, in ill-health,” said Mr Mills. “Some things are… inevitable.”

Maisie turned her head sharply to look at him, because something in his voice was _wrong_. When she looked at Mr Mills, it was there in his expression, too. Mr Mills was putting on a sombre face, but it wasn’t _right_.

He wasn’t surprised, or shocked. He’d _known_ – and Maisie put two and two together, remembering that her Grandpa had promised to talk to Mr Mills about what Maisie had overheard in the secret labs down in the basement. 

In that instant, Maisie knew that Mr Mills had somehow killed her Grandpa.

She was about to say so when Mr Mills said to Iris, “I expect you’ll want to find a new situation,” and Maisie realised, in a burst of clarity, that whatever Mr Mills had done, it had left her completely under his control. 

“No,” said Iris, hugging Maisie to her, and Maisie clung. “I’ve raised her. I raised her mother–”

But Mr Mills cut Iris off, and made it clear that he had made up his mind. 

Iris gently detached herself from Maisie, looking as distressed as Maisie felt. Maisie watched as Iris left the room, and felt fury and loss and a helpless sense of terror. 

Maisie was left alone with Mr Mills, and for a moment she stood there, staring at him, her heart thudding in her chest. Every sense was trained on him. Then the moment passed, and Maisie said, in as meek and harmless a voice as she could manage:

“Mr Mills, can I – can I have a moment to say goodbye to Grandpa?” Maisie didn’t need to fake the sob that escaped her.

Mr Mills’ solemn look didn’t reach his eyes. They were cold and calculating.

“I don’t think that is a good idea, Maisie. Come along,” and he held out his hand for her to take. “I’ll take you back to your room.”

Maisie’s skin crawled at the thought of touching him, but she knew she couldn’t arouse Mr Mills’ suspicions. She took his hand, and managed not to cringe.

Mr Mills led her back to her bedroom, shutting the door behind her. A second later, Maisie heard the key turn in the lock. She flew back to the door and tried to open it, turning the handle – but her efforts were fruitless.

Maisie was trapped in this house, with a man who had ignored her Grandpa’s orders and spent his money and had probably even murdered him, and there was no one left who was on Maisie’s side. 

Maisie felt a scream building in her throat, or maybe a snarl – she couldn’t tell. But she _refused_ to be helpless. She was getting out of here, no matter what it took.

She’d start with picking the lock on the door, and go from there.

* * *

Sometime later, Maisie was finally able to unlock her door. She moved out of the room without making a sound, wincing as the door creaked on its hinges. But there was no one around to hear it. Distantly, Maisie could hear a ruckus downstairs, coming from the ballroom. 

Maisie moved to the nearest window, and peered out. There were dozens of fancy cars parked outside the building, and people moving into the house. Maisie realised that Mr Mills must be selling the dinosaurs _tonight_.

Maisie felt cold fury sweep through her. Her Grandpa was _dead_ , and why? Because Mr Mills was a greedy man who valued money over everything else. Her Grandpa had trusted Mr Mills, trusted him to do the right thing with all of Grandpa’s money – and Mr Mills had betrayed him. _Murdered_ him.

If Maisie could stop the sale of those dinosaurs her Grandpa had tried to save, then she must. But getting out alive and safe had to be her priority.

There was no one around upstairs, or near the elevator, so Maisie headed down into the secret space in the basement, and went to visit the dinosaur.

He was still there, in his tiny cage, and when he saw her come into view he almost seemed to smile.

Maisie took a shuddering breath, and stepped up to the cage, in full range of those long, spiked claws.

But the dinosaur only watched her, his eyes bright and intelligent, something familiar in their depths. Something Maisie understood.

“Mr Mills killed my Grandpa,” Maisie told the dinosaur. “I know he did. Grandpa was _fine_ last time I saw him.” 

Maisie hands curled into claw-like shapes for a moment as she wished that she could rend Mr Mills limb from limb, but then she let out a sob as she was reminded that she would never get to talk to her Grandpa again.

“I loved him, and now he’s gone,” said Maisie, trying to contain her tears.

The dinosaur tilted his head. Maisie understood.

“You don’t know what love is?” Sniffling, Maisie tried to think how best to explain. “Love is something you feel. If you love someone, you care about them and want them to be happy, and do things to try and make them happy, and just having them around makes _you_ happy. And if they love you back, they feel the same way about you.”

Maisie wiped her eyes using the back of her hand.

“Grandpa and Iris loved me, but Grandpa’s dead and Mr Mills sent Iris away, so there’s no one left to protect me from Mr Mills. And I’m just a kid, I can’t look after myself.”

There was a small chirp from the dinosaur, requesting clarification.

“A kid is someone who hasn’t finished growing yet. That’s why everyone else is bigger and stronger than me. I haven’t learned to protect myself, yet. You probably know how to protect yourself, right? That’s called _instinct_. Humans have some instincts we’re born with, but most things we have to learn from other humans.”

Maisie paused.

“I seem to have different instincts to most people,” she told the dinosaur. “I’ve always been good at sneaking around and surprising people. My favourite game is sneaking up on Iris and making her jump.” Maisie grinned for a moment, and the dinosaur let out a sound of amusement. But then Maisie’s grin faded.

“I don’t know how to protect myself, though, not when everyone’s bigger and stronger than me. But now that Grandpa and Iris are gone I’ll have to try.”

Maisie swallowed.

“Probably Mr Mills is going to try and kill me, too. Or else he’ll keep me locked up all the time, and that might be worse.”

There was a snarl of wholehearted agreement from the dinosaur. Maisie looked at him.

“Is Mr Mills the one who put you in that cage?”

The dinosaur snarled.

“I hate him too,” said Maisie. “If I could let you out, would you…” she hesitated, because she _knew_ that what she was saying was terrible, but Mr Mills had killed her Grandpa and Maisie was defenceless on her own. “…kill him?”

The dinosaur let out a short, trilling bark that Maisie knew was a laugh. He nodded his head.

_ Yes _ . 

“Good,” said Maisie. She’d never realised she could feel such a depth of anger as she felt right now, seething and roiling in her chest. Beneath the anger was loss, and grief – but that was being transmuted into rage, thick and complicated. Maisie felt like she could drown in it – or drown someone else.

She took a deep breath.

“I’m going to look around, see if I can work out how to get your cage open,” she told the dinosaur. “Then we can hunt Mr Mills and everyone else who wants to buy dinosaurs off him.”

There was an answering smile from the dinosaur.

“You need a name,” Maisie said aloud. She looked at the dinosaur. “Your scales blend into the darkness really well. What do you think about the name Midnight?”

The dinosaur tilted his head.

“Midnight is the middle of the night, when it’s darkest,” Maisie tried to explain, but the dinosaur still looked puzzled. “We’re underground here, so you can’t tell, but outside, there’s bright light during the day and darkness during the night. Do you understand?”

The dinosaur paused. Then he nodded slowly, as though he grasped the concept as she had explained it, but wasn’t sure he actually _understood_.

And Maisie realised: the dinosaur had probably never been outside. Night and day were completely foreign concepts.

The realisation made her feel sad and angry at the same time, but it barely registered against the backdrop of seething emotion she was already experiencing. 

“Is Midnight okay for a name?” Maisie asked, and after a moment’s contemplation the dinosaur nodded.

Midnight it was, then.

“Alright, I’ll be back as soon as I know how to set you free,” said Maisie, and she slunk off into the depths of the secret basement.

Some distance away from Midnight, she went still as she heard voices. Maisie crept down the hallway, slow and careful, and peered around the corner. 

There was a man and a woman, sitting in a cage. To Maisie’s surprise, she recognised the woman.

It was the woman who had come to visit her Grandpa the other day, to help rescue the dinosaurs from the island before it exploded. Maisie’s mind raced. Had Mr Mills tricked _her_ , too? Was that why he was keeping her and the man in a cage – because they’d stop Mr Mills if they could?

Maisie was about to walk forward and talk to them, but a thought kept her in place. The people in the cage might want to stop Mr Mills from selling the dinosaurs, but they’d probably frown on Maisie’s plan to kill him. Not to mention they would probably stop her from setting Midnight free – because you could tell, just from looking at him, that he was dangerous. Every part of him, from his sharp spines and claws, to his teeth and orangey-gold eyes which were nearly all pupil, screamed that here was something that _hunted_.

Something which would make humans feel like _prey_.

So Maisie crept back the way she’d come, leaving the couple in their cage. She continued looking around. 

There were no keys for the cages in sight, so Maisie went up a level, and moved in a low crouch along the walkways outside the labs.

She stopped as she heard Mr Mills’ voice, and listened. With her sensitive hearing, Maisie heard every word. 

“You’re going to sell the child?” asked the man who had argued with Mr Mills, earlier. “Is that… wise?”

There was a short laugh from Mr Mills.

“Maisie’s part-raptor, Wu – she’ll make more money than anything else out there, except maybe the Indoraptor,” he said, and Maisie’s blood was like ice in her veins. She couldn’t have moved even if she’d wanted to. “Besides, you should see the kid – she’s been scaring the bejesus out of Iris every other day, the way she creeps around, jumping out at people. Lockwood thought it was _endearing_. He had no idea, of course. She’s more raptor than human, if you ask me.”

“But it is known that Lockwood had a granddaughter,” said the man named Wu. “If she cannot be found…”

“I’ll be long gone by then,” said Mr Mills. “With the money I’ll make tonight, there’s nowhere I can’t go.”

“And me?” asked Wu.

“Trust me, you’ll get your cut.”

“That’s not what I meant,” said Wu, but Maisie was un-freezing, and moving forward, past the labs.

Maisie had never paid much attention to her agility before, the way that muscle and sinew slid smoothly over each other, making movement effortless. She’d never thought much about how easy it was to startle Iris, or all that much about the fact that she _wanted_ to startle her. 

But now Maisie thought about these things, as well as the fact that her Grandpa had always been so evasive when it came to talk of her parents.

Did she even _have_ parents? Or was it all just a lie?

Her mind whirling, Maisie continued onwards. She was almost to the next door when it opened. Maisie looked up into the face of a grown man who was staring down at her in surprise.

Before he could react, Maisie was already moving. Adults were bigger and stronger than her – so she went for the one thing TV always showed as a weakness. She brought her knee up with all her strength, straight into contact with the stranger’s groin.

He let out a quiet, strangled sound and sank to his knees. The weapon he’d been holding dropped with a clatter onto the walkway. Maisie grabbed it, and hit him over the head with it has hard as she could. He wobbled, and reached for her, and so Maisie hit him again. This time, he toppled over and didn’t move.

Maisie walked into the room the man had just vacated, her every nerve on edge, but no one else was there. It was some kind of control room, Maisie thought, her gaze scanning over the many screens. She turned back to the door and slid the bolt, before looking back at the rest of the room, trying to figure out what all the buttons did.

She paused, however, as in the main ballroom a cage rose up from underneath the floor. Inside was a dinosaur. An ankylosaur, to be exact.

Maisie frowned at the screen. Clearly Mr Mills was selling the dinosaurs _now_. If she could just work out how to open Midnight’s cage…

There was a wide plate-glass window on one side of the control room, and Maisie looked out at cage after cage, filled with dinosaurs. Beneath the window was a row of numbered buttons, and one big red button.

There had been a number above Midnight’s cage, she thought, and her hands drifted over each of the numbered buttons until she found the right one. Then she paused.

If she let Midnight out, she had a feeling that Mr Mills wouldn’t be the only one to die tonight. But all these people were here, in her Grandpa’s house – surely they knew that something was wrong, that her Grandpa wouldn’t have agreed to this. But none of them cared.

Maisie pressed the button in a burst of renewed fury. Then she unbolted the door and began heading back down the walkway, past the labs, towards the lower level.

She was outside the elevator doors when they suddenly opened, and Mr Mills was standing there, his face like a thundercloud. Two men with large guns were standing on each side of him.

Mr Mills smiled as he saw Maisie. It wasn’t a nice smile.

“So this is where you ended up. Too smart for your own good, aren’t you, Maisie? You know, if you hadn’t told the old man what I was doing down here, he’d still be alive and you’d–”

Maisie darted forward and pulled the same knee-to-groin move she’d used earlier.

Mr Mills turned green, and gasped out, “Dart her,” and a second later, something stinging hit her in the shoulder.

Maisie turned her head, and saw a dart sticking out of her shoulder. She tried to reach up to pull it out, but her vision was turning fuzzy and dark around the edges, and before she could do anything, the blackness engulfed her.

* * *

When Maisie woke up, she felt sick and sore all over. She tried to open her eyes and lift her head, but the light hurt her eyes and the motion made her head spin alarmingly. So she closed her eyes again, and didn’t move.

But then she heard a gasp.

“Shit, that’s a _kid_ ,” said a male voice. “What’s she doing in a cage?”

“Is that–? Owen, I think that’s Lockwood’s granddaughter,” said a female voice. After a groggy moment or two, Maisie was able to place the voices: they belonged to the people who Mr Mills had been holding captive in a cage, downstairs.

Maisie lay very still, and pretended to still be out of it, even though she was slowly feeling better with every waking moment.

“We have to get her out before the Indoraptor comes back,” said the man – Owen, Maisie presumed. 

“But we don’t have the keycode,” said the woman.

Maisie began to stir, pretending to come awake.

“She’s waking up,” said the woman, sounding relieved. Maisie opened her eyes, and let them adjust to the light.

She was looking out through the bars of a cage like the dinosaurs had been locked away in, while two adults looking at her with concern. With a jolt, Maisie realised that she recognised both of them, now that she could see them up-close: she’d seen the woman mere days ago, visiting Maisie’s Grandpa, while the man was the raptor trainer who had raised Blue.

“Sweetie, do you remember me?” asked the woman. “My name is Claire. I came here to talk to your grandfather a few days ago.”

Maisie let herself give a wary nod.

“Do you know where he is?” asked Owen.

Maisie felt tears well up again. 

“Mr Mills killed him,” she said. “I don’t know how, but I told Grandpa that Mr Mills was going to sell the dinosaurs, and Grandpa said he’d talk to him, and then Grandpa was dead.”

“Oh _no_ ,” said Claire, and she looked genuinely upset. “I’m so sorry.”

Owen and Claire looked at each other, and then back at Maisie.

“You wouldn’t happen to know the passcode for this lock, would you?” Owen asked.

Maisie still remembered the passcode she’d used to get into the lab. She repeated it aloud.

Owen pressed the buttons, and a second later the cage door opened. Maisie stood, and climbed out. Claire and Owen helped her to stay on her feet as a wave of dizziness swept over her.

But the moment passed, and Maisie looked around.

“Come on, kid,” said Owen. “We need to get away before the Indoraptor gets back.”

“Indoraptor?” Maisie repeated.

“It’s a hybrid between the Indominus and raptors,” said Claire. “It’s very dangerous, okay?”

But something moved in the darkness nearby, its coloration even darker than its surroundings, and Owen and Claire stepped back from the shadows in the sudden awareness that they weren’t alone.

Maisie twisted out of Claire’s grip, and ran forward.

“ _No!_ _Don’t!_ ” Owen shouted, as Maisie skidded to a stop in the same instant as an enormous shape stepped into view, the light glinting off its black scales.

Midnight let out a short, reassuring bark, and there was a hint of a smile in his face. The next second, he let out a deafening roar. Maisie was nearly bowled over by the noise.

“Kid, get back! _Run!_ ” Claire and Owen were hollering, and Midnight let out a trilling laugh, before he crouched down in front of Maisie.

Carefully Maisie reached up, and scratched Midnight’s eye ridges. Midnight watched her with one orange-gold eye. He looked amused.

“Did you get him?” Maisie asked, and Midnight laughed again, and nodded. There was silence from behind them.

“Good,” said Maisie. “I’m glad.” 

Another beat of silence, and then Owen said, very carefully, “Kid… does your friend understand English?”

Maisie glanced back at the two adults, who were standing absolutely still, like rabbits trapped in front of a dog. 

“Why are you so surprised?” Maisie asked. “You raised Blue.”

“Sure,” said Owen, his voice still carefully even, “but intelligent as she is, Blue doesn’t understand very much spoken language. How much does your friend understand?”

Maisie looked up at Midnight.

“You’ve understood everything I’ve said, haven’t you?” she asked him. “Except where I had to explain what I meant?”

Midnight nodded.

“Oh, sweet Jesus,” said Owen, but quietly.

Just then two more adults ran into the room, coming to a rapid halt as they spotted Midnight.

“Uh, Owen?” said the new woman. “What’s going on?”

“Is she _petting_ the killer dinosaur?” said her companion, his voice squeaking slightly.

Midnight loomed up onto his back legs, and hissed.

“Zia, Franklin, this is Mr Lockwood’s granddaughter and her, uh, friend,” said Claire, her tone bright and brittle. “And we’re all getting along just fine, aren’t we? No one’s going to attack each other, okay?”

“Uh, that’s great,” said Zia. “But we have a problem.”

“What problem?” asked Owen, still trying to keep his voice level.

“The lower levels are being flooded with poisonous gas – the dinosaurs are dying,” said Zia. “Franklin and I tried everything we could to stop it, but… the whole system’s shot.”

Maisie experienced a surge of distress.

“What about the doors?” she asked. “Can you get them open? Let the dinosaurs out?”

There was a tense silence.

“Kid… I don’t think that’s a good idea,” said Owen.

Maisie looked between the adults, who all appeared to be varying degrees of afraid and uncomfortable. But none of them disagreed with Owen.

“You’re going to let them die,” said Maisie, in realisation. “But you _can’t_.”

“Owen,” said Claire, looking at the man in question. “She’s right. After all of this, we can’t let them all die.”

“Think about this, Claire. Think about what you’re discussing,” Owen warned her, and Maisie lost her temper.

She screamed, in a short, sharp burst that didn’t sound anything like human. Every adult in the room flinched.

“It’s not up to you,” said Maisie. “Grandpa’s dead. That means this is _my_ house, and _my_ dinosaurs, and _I’m_ the one who gets to decide. And I’m not letting them all die.” She took off running.

Halfway to the elevator there was the scrape of claws against the hardwood floor, and a gust of hot air against Maisie’s back.

She kept on running until she reached the elevator, where she pressed the button and waited, glancing sideways at the dinosaur standing beside her.

“You probably don’t care,” said Maisie, and received a snort of agreement. “But these are the last dinosaurs on the planet. I can’t let them all die.” The elevator doors opened. “Are you coming with me?”

Midnight neither nodded, nor shook his head, but simply stepped into the elevator with her.

The ride down in the elevator seemed to take forever. The moment the doors opened, Maisie ran for the control room. Midnight stuck his head through the door a second after she entered the room, too big to get the rest of his body through the door.

Maisie opened each of the individual cages that the captive dinosaurs were in, and then hit the big red button. The external doors slid open, and the dinosaurs began shoving and pushing past each other to escape.

Maisie looked at the clouds of billowing, toxic smoke visible on an increasing number of the control room screens, and said to Midnight, “We need to leave.”

He nodded, and disappeared from the doorway, allowing Maisie to step back onto the walkway. The two of them ran back towards the elevator.

When the doors opened, back on the ground floor, Claire and Owen and the other two adults were waiting in front of the elevator. Maisie and Midnight stepped out.

“Did you do it?” asked Claire. “Did you let them out?”

Maisie nodded, sending a defiant look at Owen.

“I had to.”

“Well, we can argue over that later,” said Zia. “Right now, we all need to leave.”

“ _Please_ ,” said Franklin, looking a little wild-eyed.

It clicked in Maisie’s brain, then, why all the adults had waited, instead of leaving. Maisie took a step back, into the space between Midnight’s front legs.

“I’m not going with you.”

“Kid–” Owen began.

‘My _name_ is Maisie,” said Maisie, her voice severe. “Don’t worry, I’m going to leave. I’m just not going with you.”

“Maisie, sweetie,” said Claire, her voice kind and reasonable, “you can’t stay with the Indoraptor.”

Midnight leaned forward over Maisie’s head, and let out a threatening screech. This time, unlike the playful roar from earlier, he was deadly serious in his intent. The adults flinched.

“His name is Midnight,” said Maisie. “He’s a person, okay? Call him by his _name_ , and stop talking like you get to make the decisions for us.” 

She looked up at Midnight.

“They can’t stop us,” she said to him. “Or separate us.”

A line from a book her Grandpa used to read to her, back when he was still well enough for long visits, drifted to the surface of Maise’s mind.

“ _We be of one blood, ye and I_ ,” she murmured, and heard Owen swear aloud.

“Uh, Maisie?” he asked, with forced lightness. “You wouldn’t be, uh, part-dinosaur, would you?”

Out of the corner of her eye, where Midnight loomed, Maisie saw the dinosaur smile.

“Wait, what?” asked Zia.

“Part-dinosaur?” Franklin echoed. “You can’t be serious. Uh, no offence,” he added to Maisie and Midnight, keeping a wary eye on the two of them.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” said Maisie, looking Owen dead in the eye. 

Owen let out a rueful-sounding chuckle.

“Oh, boy,” he said, and he didn’t sound convinced by Maisie’s denial at all.

Just then, Maisie heard a tap-tap of claw on hardwood floor, and looked beyond the group of adults, out towards the darkened doorway at the other end of the room. Midnight clearly heard it too, because he raised his head, looking in the same direction.

A streamlined shape crossed the floor, smaller than Midnight but still bigger than Maisie. The raptor paused, staring at Midnight, who was staring back. There was a long, fraught moment.

Then Midnight let out a bark of cautious welcome, and Blue – because it _had_ to be Blue, Maisie knew – stepped forward, her posture wary, scenting the air as she walked.

“That’s Blue,” Maisie told Midnight. “She’s a velociraptor.” Midnight glanced down at Maisie, listening. “You’re part-velociraptor yourself, I think.”

“He is,” said Owen. He and the others were looking between where Blue was, and where Maisie and Midnight stood. “Part-raptor, part-Indominus rex.”

Maisie’s brow furrowed.

“That doesn’t sound like a real dinosaur.”

“That’s because they made the Indominus in a lab, from bits of other dinosaurs,” said Owen. “They did the same with your buddy there.”

Midnight let out a snarl.

“I’m just saying,” said Owen. He looked at Maisie. “Maisie – are you _sure_ you won’t come with us?”

“I’m sure.”

“Then all of us need to leave,” he said. “Right now, before this building goes up. Who knows what flammable materials they’ve got down there, in the labs.”

Maisie looked at Midnight, who hissed his agreement, and began moving forward.

The adults began moving quickly towards the front door, keeping space between them and Midnight.

Blue let out a curious chirrup, and Midnight barked back at her. _Danger here_.

Blue gave an alarmed growl, and joined them in leaving.

As Midnight and Maisie headed for the front doors, the adults tumbling outside before them, there was the sound of an explosion.

Maisie let out a _run!_ screech. She and the two dinosaurs broke into a sprint, even as the floor began to give beneath their feet. They burst outside, into the night.

The adults were busy climbing into a car, which took off before the passenger doors were quite closed. Maisie and Midnight and Blue kept running, building up speed as they went. Behind them Maisie could hear the sounds of her home and everything that was _hers_ collapsing, but she forced herself not to look back.

Her Grandpa was probably still in there, she thought, with a fresh wave of grief and fury – but it was too late to go back and get him out. There would be no funeral, nothing to bury. No chance to say goodbye.

Maisie kept running. 

She and the others didn’t stop until they were well into the forest beyond the house, when Maisie’s legs began to hurt. They’d lost sight of the adults’ car a while back. It had been forced to stick to the road up the side of the mountain. Maisie and the dinosaurs hadn’t.

“I need to stop,” Maisie told Midnight. She saw him glance at her, and slow his speed.

Maisie stopped, taking deep, easy breaths of the clean night air, and looked back the way they had come. Visible above the treetops was a pillar of smoke and flame, some distance away.

Maisie felt a wetness on her cheeks, and realised that she was crying.

“I’m fine,” she said, when Midnight questioned her. “It’s just… that was my home. I have nowhere to live, nowhere to go, and no one left to care about, except you.”

Maisie pulled out one of the handkerchiefs Iris always insisted she carry around in her pockets, because _young ladies do not wipe their noses on their sleeves, Maisie, no they do not_. She blew her nose, earning a startled squawk from Blue.

Maisie missed Iris, nearly as fiercely as she missed her Grandpa.

But she wiped her face with the edge of her handkerchief, and shoved it back into her pocket.

Together, she and Midnight and Blue vanished into the night.

* * *

A week later, Maisie stepped into a police station.

“Excuse me,” she said, and heard the woman at the front desk gasp. Maisie was dirty, her clothing was torn, and she hadn’t bathed or brushed her hair or her teeth since she’d left the mansion. “My name is Maisie Lockwood, and I’d like to report a murder.”

Before Maisie knew what was happening, she was being bundled into a different room with a blanket and a cup of hot cocoa.

“Do you have a parent or guardian we can contact?” one of the police officers asked her, in a voice calculated to sound harmless and reassuring.

Maisie shook her head, and did her own best to sound harmless. It wasn’t difficult, even though in the last week she’d learned more about being dangerous than she had all her life before that. 

People didn’t believe that children could be dangerous.

“Mr Mills murdered my Grandpa,” Maisie told the police officers, who wrote everything she said down on a notepad. “And then a dinosaur ate Mr Mills. He flew them in from the island before it exploded, you see. They were supposed to go to a sanctuary, but Mr Mills brought them to the mansion and held an auction with rich people. But when the dinosaurs escaped, one of them ate him.”

Maisie should probably feel bad about that.

She didn’t.

In the end, Maisie spent a lot of time telling the police officers all about her Grandpa’s plans, Mr Mills betrayal, and the auction. She left out all mention of Midnight, or her own dinosaur DNA, or Claire and Owen and their friends; but everything else came spilling out.

Shortly after she finished telling the police her story, they left her alone in the room for a while. When the door next opened – 

“ _Iris!_ ” Maisie let out a happy-screech. Iris pulled Maisie into her arms and held her close.

“I’m so glad you’re alright,” said Iris, when they finally stopped hugging. “What _happened?_ The mansion was _destroyed_ – no sign of you and your grandfather – dinosaurs everywhere… it was all over the news!” Iris pulled out a carefully-pressed handkerchief and wiped her eyes. “I’ve been trying to find out what happened to you for the last week – I was so _worried!_ ” 

“I’m okay,” Maisie assured her.

“And… your grandfather…?” Iris asked, sounding like she dreaded the answer.

Maisie’s eyes welled up for the thousandth time, as they did every time she thought of her Grandpa.

“Mr Mills murdered him.”

Iris put a hand over her mouth.

“ _Maisie!_ ”

“He did!” Maisie insisted. “Because he wanted to sell the dinosaurs Grandpa told him to save!”

Iris sent a glance towards the one-way glass. Maisie knew that it wasn’t really a mirror, that there were probably people watching on the other side; she just didn’t care.

“He wanted to kill me too,” said Maisie, which was stretching the truth a little, but it wasn’t as though she could tell anyone that Mr Mills had wanted to sell her, because then people would ask _why_. “But I escaped.”

Iris seemed to believe her, then. She went “Oh, _Maisie_ ,” and hugged her a second time.

It was like coming home, Maisie thought, being with Iris again. Iris was familiar and beloved, a fragment of a life Maisie thought she had lost completely.

Things would never be the same again, she knew. But maybe… maybe not everything that was good, was gone.

Once Maisie had given her official statement, and what seemed like far too many people had talked to her and Iris, they were allowed to leave.

Only when they were in the car, on the way to the hotel where Iris had been staying since Mr Mills had dismissed her, did Iris say, “Now, Maisie, what was it you weren’t telling those policemen? I know there some something you were holding back.”

Maisie stared out the window for a moment. Then she said, in a soft voice:

“Did you know I’m part dinosaur?”

“What? Don’t be absurd!”

“Mr Mills said so, to a man named Wu, who made dinosaurs. And Wu didn’t disagree with him. And… I can talk. To dinosaurs.” Maisie glanced at Iris, who looked like she didn’t know what to believe. “That’s how I escaped. A dinosaur named Midnight helped me. He was part-raptor – like me. I’ve been with him and a raptor named Blue ever since the mansion blew up.”

Iris looked pale. Finally, she said, “You weren’t supposed to be part-dinosaur.”

“What was I supposed to be, then?” asked Maisie, sharp and snappish.

Iris hesitated.

“You have to understand… your grandfather loved your mother very, very much. When she died, it was as though part of him died, too. He wanted her back, in any way he could manage it. And with the DNA research he was doing…” 

“You’re saying that I was supposed to be a clone,” said Maisie, because she knew how to join the dots. “That part of me _is_ a clone.”

Iris glanced away from the road in front of them to look at Maisie.

“I know this must be difficult for you to understand,” she said. “But your grandfather always loved you, even when you turned out differently from your mother.” Iris smiled a little. “She never hid and jumped out at people, you know.”

“Because she wasn’t part-dinosaur,” said Maisie, and Iris’ smile wavered and vanished.

“No, I suppose not.”

There was silence in the car.

“So what now?” asked Maisie. She didn’t mean just in this moment, but she also knew that Iris understood.

“Well. I’ve applied for custody of you, and if we’re lucky… I will become your new guardian,” said Iris slowly. “If not… then I don’t know what will happen next.”

“If not, I’ll run away and live with Midnight and Blue in the forest.”

“Don’t say such ridiculous things,” said Iris. “You need to be with people, Maisie, even if that person isn’t me. Besides, we might be lucky. You have no other living relatives, no one else who has a claim to you… and I raised you from infancy. Anyone sympathetic will let you live with me.”

“I hope so,” said Maisie. “You don’t… mind, that I’m part-dinosaur?”

Iris met her eyes for a second.

“You’re the same child you’ve always been,” Iris said firmly. “Nothing changes that.”

Maisie smiled.

“You know,” she said. “I always thought… having you around… was kind of like having a mom.”

Iris said nothing for a while.

“Your mother was like a daughter to me,” she said eventually. “I never thought that I could love another child the way that I loved her. But you proved me wrong.”

There was another silence.

“I’d like to go to school,” said Maisie, apropos of nothing. “Have a chance to make friends. _Human_ friends,” she amended, thinking of Midnight and Blue.

“We shall see,” said Iris. Maisie was content to let it go, for now, turning back to stare out the car window again.

She didn’t know what the future held, and in its own way, that was scary. But Maisie had survived everything so far. She would survive what was to come, too.

END

**Author's Note:**

> I actually started a similar thing before I saw Jurassic World 2, where Claire Dearing is part-dinosaur. I haven't finished it yet, but will probably post that as a different series once I do.


End file.
